Three Wishes
When the ladies took a moment for themselves, Nica inquired of Alice Coltrane what her three wishes would be if they were able to be given and she told her:
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“I’d like to see my little daughter graduate from the University in Paris.”
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“I would dig an artist’s colony. Like one block of buildings, or area, where artists and musicians could get together, and teach, and study. Artists could display their art. Writers ~ we’d allow them in, too, but it’d be mostly artists and musicians. We’d have a library, concerts, and sessions, and rooms for tapings. Artists could come in and record. You know, you’ve got it!”
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*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steve Holt was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on May 9, 1954 and exhibited musical ability in early childhood, playing piano at the age of four. By the time he was a teenager, he was a regular on the Montreal club scene.
Self-taught until he entered McGill University, he received instruction from pianist Armas Maiste, whose bebop playing influenced him. Holt became a student of Kenny Barron, traveling regularly to New York City for private lessons. Graduating from McGill in 1981 with that university’s first Bachelor of Music major in Jazz Performance, he taught jazz improvisation there.
Steve’s 1983 debut album, The Lion’s Eyes was nominated for a Juno Award. He has worked with Larry Coryell, Eddie Henderson, and Archie Shepp. Moving to Toronto, Canada in 1987 he worked as an equity analyst and for a time he also continued playing clubs at night. He released three albums in the early Nineties ~ Christmas Light, Just Duet and Catwalk.
At the end of the decade Holt returned his concentration to music full-time and three years later his fifth album, The Dream, was released. He turned his attention to music production and stopped performing jazz live until 2014. A move to the countryside reignited his interest in jazz performance and in 2017 he opened a health food store in Warkworth, Ontario that operates as a jazz venue once a week.
Pianist Steve Hunt continues to play jazz while maintaining outside interests.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Contrary to the announcement that the pandemic is over and the unmasking the country has clearly exhibited, a variant is still present and this Jazz Voyager is getting out remains distant from crowds and enclosed spaces. So we will continue to listen to great music.
My selection this week is the Complete Studio Recordings, a two compact disc set whose songs were recorded between 1956 and 1958 by the Curtis Counce Quintet composed of Counce, Jack Sheldon, Harold Land, Carl Perkins and Frank Butler went into the studio of Contemporary Records and recorded twenty-four songs. Though the group was short~lived, their impact produced a powerhouse two-disc set of music comprising the main recordings on the Contemporary label.
The group’s expressed purpose was to develop a West Coast answer to the soulful, hard-bop East Coast sound. Each of the musicians was among the most gifted on his instrument, yet the focus was always on a collaborative result that would reflect undiscovered possibilities within a familiar post-bop idiom. Seldom does a group of musicians come together and play so seamlessly that they sound like one voice speaking. The contribution of each of the five principals, therefore, invites close scrutiny.
The beauty of the recorded disc is that it is a lasting tribute to the musicians who performed on this recording. Lester Koenig at Contemporary Records was known for extremely high audio standards and turned out some of the best-sounding records of the day thanks to the expertise of engineer Roy DuNann. The audio on these Contemporary dates is rich in depth and detailing, allowing the listener to pick out each of the subordinate motifs and subtle moving harmonies. The engineering created a naturally ambient soundscape inviting the listener to partake of the worthy.
The caveat is that this music appeared on previously released albums by Curtis Counce and this is an opportunity to pick up the excellence of 24 tracks of music in a one~stop shop. This represents African-American indigenous art of the highest order. Released by Gambit Records in 2007 and definitely one for the collector.
Track Listing | 150:00+
Disc 1- Landslide (Harold Land) ~ 8:37
- Time After Time (Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne) ~ 6:32
- Mia (Carl Perkins) ~ 4:55
- Sarah (Jack Sheldon) ~ 11:38
- Fifth For Frank (Gerald Wiggins/Cal Tjader) ~ 7:14
- Big Foot (Charlie Parker) ~ 9:07
- Sonar (Kenny Clarke/Gerald Wiggins) ~ 7:28
- Stranger In Paradise (Robert Wright/George Forrest) ~ 7:04
- Woody’n You (Dizzy Gillespie) ~ 6:18
- Pink Lady (Jack Sheldon) ~ 4:41
- Councelation (Curtis Counce) ~ 6:05
- Love Walked In (George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin) ~ 4:56
- Too Close For Comfort (Larry Holofcener) ~ 5:38
- How Deep Is The Ocean (Irving Berlin) ~ 6:37
- Complete (Curtis Counce) ~ 5:52
- Nica’s Dream (Horace Silver) ~ 8:00
- How Long Has This Been Going On (George Gershwin/Ira Gerswin) ~ 3:18
- Mean To Me (Fred E. Ahlert/Roy Turk) ~ 4:31
- I Can’t Get Started (Vernon Duke/Ira Gershwin) ~ 8:01
- Larue (Clifford Brown) ~ 5:04
- Carl’s Blues (Carl Perkins) ~ 5:54
- Night In Tunisia (Dizzy Gillespie/Frank Paparelli) ~ 8:17
- Love Walked In (George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin) ~ 2:55
- Sophisticated Lady (Duke Ellington) ~ 4:10
- Fifth For Frank (Gerald Wiggins/Cal Tjader) ~ 1:56
- The Butler Did It (Frank Butler) ~ 4:39
Personnel
- Jack Sheldon ~ trumpet
- Harold Land ~ tenor saxophone
- Carl Perkins ~ piano
- Curtis Counce ~ bass
- Frank Butler ~ drums
- Gerald Wilson ~ trumpet (replaces Sheldon on three tracks of disc 2)
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Donald Ernest Friedman was born in San Francisco, California on May 4, 1935 and began playing the piano at the age of four, switching from classical music to jazz after his family moved to Los Angeles, California when he was fifteen. His early jazz piano influence was Bud Powell and he briefly studied composition at Los Angeles City College.
He began playing in Los Angeles and moved to New York City in 1958. During the 1960s, he played with both modern stylists and more traditional musicians. The former included Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Giuffre, Booker Little, and Attila Zoller; the latter, Bobby Hackett and Herbie Mann.
His debut album as a leader was A Day in the City, recorded in 1961. A few of his early albums received top ratings from DownBeat, which also gave him its critics’ poll New Star award. On the West Coast, Friedman performed with Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Buddy DeFranco, and Ornette Coleman. He was also a member of Clark Terry’s big band.
Pianist Don Friedman, who was also an educator in New York and had many fans in Japan, transitioned from pancreatic cancer on June 30, 2016 at his Bronx home.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
The Jazz Voyager is still practicing social distancing and masking at unknown vac gatherings because the airlines have extended my eCredit another year. The news is talking about another variant and this voyager is vigilant in remaining safe.
This week I am pulling from the library Phineas Newborn Jr. Plays Harold Arlen’s Music from Jamaica. It is an album by the pianist, produced by A. K. Salim, and recorded on September 7, 8 & 9, 1957 in New York City and released on the RCA Victor label. The album features his interpretations of compositions from the Broadway musical Jamaica.
Track List | 38:00 All compositions by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg
- Savannah ~ 4:10
- Little Biscuit ~ 3:03
- Cocoanut Sweet ~ 4:23
- Push De Button ~ 4:23
- Napoleon ~ 4:20
- Hooray For De Yankee Dollar ~ 3:31
- For Every Fish ~ 3:47
- Take It Slow, Joe ~ 4:20
- Pity the Sunset ~ 4:07
- Pretty to Walk With ~ 2:52
- Phineas Newborn Jr. ~ piano
- Ernie Royal (tracks 2, 4 & 6-9), Nick Ferrante (tracks 1, 3, 5 & 10) ~ trumpet
- Jimmy Cleveland ~ trombone
- Jerome Richardson ~ tenor saxophone, flute
- Sahib Shihab ~ baritone saxophone, alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet
- Les Spann ~ guitar
- George Duvivier ~ bass
- Osie Johnson ~ drums
- Francisco Pozo, Willie Rodriguez ~ congas, bongos, timbale
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